The Golden Lotus: 5.3 Reputation Guide and 5.4 Changes

The is getting some major changes in 5.4, and understandably players have been curious as to what they can and can't do in the new patch.

We've broken down what's staying and going away, as well as provided our Patch 5.3 guide to the Golden Lotus if you want to experience the original rep grind before it's changed. A lot of players found tedious to grind at launch, but it might be interesting to experience for lore reasons. In Patch 5.4, the Vale is corrupted into the Vale of Eternal Sorrows, and familiar figures from the Vale are Siege of Orgrimmar bosses.

Usual disclaimer: the 5.4 PTR has been up for less than a week, and things can change quite frequently! We'll keep this guide updated with further PTR developments.

What is going away:

is being removed, as well as the related quests and rewards. Players progress farther through this quest series as they gain reputation--this is not tied to any daily quests.

The multi-tiered daily system is simplified. Some quest hubs are destroyed, such as the Golden Pagoda and Whitepetal Lake hubs.

The quests to kill elites are removed.

The Fish of the Day pool for is now a sha-infested area.

Many parts of the Vale are now Sha-infested and destroyed. Most NPCs are tinged with grey, there are many Sha populating the zone, and there is a larger Mogu presence than before.

What is staying:

The Setting Sun Garrison is still a quest hub in 5.4. Players can complete all the quests that are tied to Quest Achievements from this hub. So far on the PTR, some quests available from the Ruins of Guo-Lai hub are now available from the Setting Sun Garrison.

is still to the east of the Golden Pagoda. Defeating her completes .

All achievements tied to daily quests are obtainable.

The Lorewalkers are staying in place, as is for Challenge Mode mounts.

is still flying around as before--presumably there will be a way to acquire .

What is new:

Killing mobs in normally awards 10 reputation.

The elite mobs for are now marked as rare spawns. These award 200 reputation when killed.

On the PTR, any mob in Vale of Eternal Blossoms can drop . This is smart loot, meaning that it will only drop for eligible Engineers. This contains recipes for , , , , and .

has relocated to the capital cities.

Here are some easy ways to speed up reputation gains to finish quickly:

drops from , , and . It gives 1000 reputation before bonuses. Killing these mobs counts towards and you can get mounts like along the way.

After Farmer Yoon is recruited to the Tillers Council, you have the option to get Work Ordrer dailies by your Tillers farm. and together give 400 Golden Lotus reputation.

New to 5.2, your first random scenario will give 200 reputation and your first heroic scenario 300 reputation with a chosen faction.

Take advantage of reputation buffs, such as .

Click the cut to read our 5.3 Golden Lotus guide!

Patch Changes

5.3 Changes

Golden Lotus revered is no longer needed to start Shado-Pan or August Celestial dailies.

5.2 Changes

Sunsong Ranch now has Work Order quests that can boost your reputation with two factions per day. You must have unlocked that faction's dailies in order to be eligible for Work Orders, which award +300 reputation. For the , there are and .

Random dungeons and scenarios now have a "*Bonus Reputation:" line and a button that opens up your reputation panel. You'll get additional rep for completing your first scenario and dungeon of the day.

5.1 Changes

has been added to for . This speeds up your primary character's rep grind from Revered to Exalted, and affects the rep grinds of all future alts. This buff stacks with guild and human rep bonuses.

Rewards

is the Golden Lotus Quartermaster.

He sells Justice Point gear that doesn't require reputation:

Wrists: 0

Gloves: 0

Pants: 0

Amulet: 0

At Honored there's a CC trinket with fun visuals: . There are also Tailoring and Leatherworking patterns, and ilvl 489 rings:

Leatherworking

Tailoring

Rings, 5

At Revered, players can purchase epic chests and shoulders for Valor Points.

Chest: 5

Shoulder: 5

There are three mounts at Exalted, costing each.

There's also a vanity tabard: . You can check out our tabard preview here. For people that don't have VP necks, completing at exalted awards you a 489 neck.

The quartermaster is located at the base of the Lorewalker's hub/.

Gaining Reputation

Unlocking the Vale

To begin questing with , you'll need to prove yourself to the Pandaren at the Temple of the White Tiger in . You'll be able to fly into otherwise, but many areas will be phased. The gates to the Vale have not been open in many years, so you will have to defeat three trials, the last one being a shadowy version of a faction leader.

Daily Quests

This part will be heavily modified in 5.4. Golden Pagoda and Whitepetal Lake daily hubs are destroyed, the daily quest process is condensed.

As you gain reputation with , more quest hubs will unlock with 4-5 quests each. You'll first start out at the Golden Pagoda hub with sending you to The Golden Stair at Friendly, and go up from there. You will get the Golden Pagoda hub and one additional hub at Friendly, with two additional hubs at Honored and above.

The Golden Pagoda: Eliminating the Shao-Tian Mogu by the Vale's north gate. You will always get this quest hub.

Whitepetal Lake: Dive into the water to restore artifacts, as well as kill enemies on the riverbanks. Always available.

Mistfall Village: Saving the town from sprites and fires, as well as gathering resources. Always available.

Ruins of Guo-Lai: Clearing the ruins of Mogu statues and spiderwebs. Available at Honored.

Setting Sun Garrison: Dealing with the Mantid threat. Available at Honored.

The final daily quest of the day will be to kill an elite that also rewards which can have a variety of useful things inside like high-level recipes.

This quest hub gives 500 reputation. You will start doing quests at this hub at Neutral.

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This quest hub gives 400 reputation and is available at Neutral. The quests vary depending on if the area is under attack or not.

Under Attack

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Quiet

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This quest hub gives 400 reputation and is available at Honored. The quests vary depending on if the area is under attack or not. You will get an addition quest for +200 reputation if Revered.

Under Attack

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Quiet

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This quest hub gives 400 reputation and is available at Neutral. The quests vary depending on if the area is under attack or not.

Under Attack

or

Quiet

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This quest hub gives 400 reputation at Honored, 600 at Revered.

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These quests are the last quest you get each day, and award 200 reputation and .

Quest Series

This quest series is removed in 5.4.

There's also a one-time quest series that progresses further as your reputation increases:

At neutral, you'll complete the following:

and

and

At Honored, has you discover more of the Guo-Lai Halls with , and rewards you with an ilvl 440 ring.

At Revered, there is a quest chain to find several artifacts of power, belonging to the "Thunder King," before the Mogu do. The reward is an ilvl 463 chest (Example: ), from .

Upon hitting Exalted, you'll face off with . First, you'll have to speak to Zhi the Harmonious in , and speak to Sun Tenderheart in . Then you'll kill 100 Mogu in , getting aid from the Celestials in the form of buffs: , , .

Afterwards, it's time to eliminate in . This is a pretty fun fight where you'll throw a spear at him for 500k damage and get a movement and jump buff from the last Celestial: . The best part is that completing this quest will give you an epic necklace:

You'll also complete at this point.

Items

s

Players can collect s from mobs and . It is a pretty time-consuming process, but when you have 10 of them, you'll be able to make and break through 's .

drops the gorgeous mount.

Ancient Guo-Lai Cache

As you quest, you may also encounter . The keys have a low chance to drop from Mogu mobs in .

Rep items: ,

Crafting materials: , ,

Jewelcrafting pet patterns: ,

Pandaren meta-gem recipes.

Treasures of the Vale

is a reward for completing the final daily quest, which is to kill an elite mob. This item can contain the following:

Crafting materials: , ,

Jewelcrafting pet patterns: ,

Pandaren meta-gem recipes.

This quest series may be going away in 5.4. Killing the mobs will still be possible.

Achievements

All of these achievements, except for , are completable in 5.4.

: Earn Exalted status with the Golden Lotus.

: Find a Guo-Lai Vault Key and open an Ancient Guo-Lai Cache. The keys have a low chance to drop from Mogu mobs in .

are located in the Guo-Lai Halls in north-west .

At Revered, more of the Halls will open up, leading to more accessible Caches.

: Use a Mogu Statue's Crushing Slam to kill another opponent.

While on , go attack in north-west Vale.

Walk up to a statue (they remain inactive from far away), and DPS it down to around 15%. Wait for it to cast .

: Defeat 10 Shado-Pan Trainees within 10 seconds.

While on , go to the ring and wait for 10 to attack. You must get all the killing blows.

: This achievement requires you to complete all of the special quests in quest chain. A new quest is available each reputation level.: Defeat the following powerful enemies within the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.

This requires you to kill all of the quest mobs that are required for elite daily quests. However, ~4 are up each day, which can be killed without their quests.

inico의 댓글

lankybrit의 댓글

on 2013-06-16T18:00:22-05:00

Wow - what a massive detailed guide for this. As always I guess. Awesome.

Cheers.

BrightBrown의 댓글

on 2013-06-16T19:40:54-05:00

First, Skyshards... do they actually exist? Oh, I guess they do, but I did the entire grind to exalted and then kept doing dailies until a month or so ago. I got those Treasures of the Vale every single day for months and months. Got 4-5 Pandaren banquets and about 3 Skyshards and gold only (got 2 more Shards off mobs for a grand total of 5). Got maybe 2-3 SoHs. NEVER, ever a Silk, NEVER ever a Scroll. Unless they have REALLY changed anything, not worth the hassle and effort.

And does that rare "General" actually exist? I had no trouble finding all the other rares for the cheevo,,but literally every day I'd fly over heading to Dread, hitting a targeting macro that never, ever targeted him (can't tell you how many time I checked the spelling...). I think he's like Galleon used to be, never shows up until at least 2 months have passed AND only around 4 AM server time (I kept an eye on the forums and I think exactly twice someone claimed to have actually engaged him).

There were some cool dailies out of Setting Sun. And some annoying ones. It was where I faced my first 3M HP mob solo. The Roll Club one was cool, as were the ones tossing & igniting oil on mantid as well as the one on the canons shooting them out of the sky. Oh and I like the WarSerpent one.

tazar의 댓글

on 2013-06-16T20:20:22-05:00

Seeing those screenshots they should rename Mogu'shan Palace to Mogu'SHA palace.

Scyntt의 댓글

on 2013-06-16T20:38:00-05:00

The mobs for 일인 군대 seem to respawn quite quickly, though (except for 퀴드 which I couldn't find) Of course this may change before release, as usual.

Either way, I'll be happy to have a reliable way to finally find 장군 테무자 :)

I'm also glad to hear that they are not going away as well. Been waiting for 영혼절단자 가오훈 to show for months! It's also good to see the fish are staying, although I'm excited for the noodle carts!

Hinalover의 댓글

on 2013-06-17T01:01:22-05:00

Well the first thing that came to my mind since seeing those first images on 5.4 Vale was Alani. Since I only had 3 shards at the time I immediately started farming the dailies that Thursday evening on as many toons as I possibly could each and every day. Since farming, I've collected 3 shards from the caches and will continue doing these until I collect 10. I'm just hoping that with the ~7% chance to drop, that I would have the last 4 within the next 2 weeks.

Nulgar의 댓글

on 2013-06-17T07:02:00-05:00

Yep, I'm also curious to see how their loot tables turn out.

Well, there are more of them than the IoT rares, and due to Flying, they're 'closer' together. I don't think they'll drop many interesting things, maybe just a chance for a .

Xabidar의 댓글

on 2013-06-17T09:39:59-05:00

Just curious if anyone has more info about these two NPCs - - 싸움꾼 키츠- 징조

alinoor의 댓글

on 2013-06-17T13:04:48-05:00

wow nice guide o_O

ArcaneEther의 댓글

on 2013-06-17T17:03:25-05:00

Any word yet on the *when* 5.4 is?

How much time do we have to Exalt the Alts for Golden Lotus?

Rystrave의 댓글

on 2013-06-17T17:18:22-05:00

People are speculating September-October for 5.4

Iceveiled의 댓글

on 2013-06-17T18:03:28-05:00

I've already done this rep grind 3 times and have yet to see a single stinking skyshard drop, let alone 10 on one character for a chance at that mount. :-\\

I'm convinced they aren't real.

Severage의 댓글

on 2013-06-17T18:53:15-05:00

I've already done this rep grind 3 times and have yet to see a single stinking skyshard drop, let alone 10 on one character for a chance at that mount. :-\\

I'm convinced they aren't real.

I've only done it twice, but I have found a single skyshard. It was on my first grind of course, without the Grand Commendation making things faster (and before you could get rep from your Farm).

Nulgar의 댓글

on 2013-06-17T19:01:16-05:00

I've already done this rep grind 3 times and have yet to see a single stinking skyshard drop, let alone 10 on one character for a chance at that mount. :-\\

I'm happy I found a single 하늘조각. Do note that they are BoA now, so you can mail them to bank chars. However, 하늘 수정 remains BoP! Maybe put them on two different chars so you don't accidentally use them on a level <10, even with the 5 sec cast. That is, of course, should you find one.

I hope that since (I guess) you don't "have to" kill that many mobs for dailies anymore, and it's getting closer towards the end of this expansion, they might up the drop chance, and/or give the rares have a higher drop chance.

GImbert1의 댓글

on 2013-06-18T11:24:26-05:00

Will the transformation of the vale be an event like the opening of the gates of AQ?

Adamsm의 댓글

on 2013-06-18T11:26:48-05:00

Will the transformation of the vale be an event like the opening of the gates of AQ?